Sanctuary
by Zyrin
Summary: There have been two days in Sakura Haruno's life that have changed her forever. The day she last saw Sasuke Uchiha and the day she let Sasuke Uchiha live. A storm is on its way. /Follow up after shippuden 47 (Sasuke ruins everything) #swag #yolo


**I've been watching Naruto for 6 hours straight don't look at me, episode shippuden 297 has ruined my life. Gaara :(  
Anyway, this was originally going to be GaaraxSakura but one thing led to another and well I fucked up. i fucked up so bad. I have no idea if this even has a ship? Like does it really need one? does it? really? yea probably.**

** Leave a review or £10,000 i dnt mind. **

* * *

**Many months before**

_Looking at him hurt. It felt a lot like drowning. _

_I looked into his eyes and tried to salvage something, anything that reminded me of the boy I love. It was like looking at a perfect wax figure, unmoving, unfeeling, and completely emotionless. His eyes looked darker than before somehow; I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I wasn't listening to what he was saying, but somehow it made me feel sick just hearing him speak with such venom. _

_"They're going all out to keep their bonds with you from being severed…" I heard Sai say faintly, I felt like I was miles away, straining to hear anything else but the sound of my beating heart. _

_"…I severed those bonds" I saw the lips I dreamt of one day caressing, say bitterly._

_There's no way that was Sasuke. This wasn't real. It couldn't be! _

_The more he talked the less I listened, the more he stared at Naruto and I from above like some sort of god- like we were beneath him – the more my heart constricted hideously. He was still so beautiful – but now his beauty was sharp, cold and unforgiving. Orochimaru had tainted him, dipped his soul in hate and groomed him into a fine weapon of destruction. _

**_But wasn't he always tainted? Wasn't there always something at the back of your mind that said he would destroy you one day? It was just an illusion, and you fell for it._**_ I heard my own voice whisper in my head. _

_Then I watched him walk away from us, from me. Naruto looked me in the eyes and my own anguish was reflected in a sea of azure. _

_And I was drowning. _

**Many months after**

The sound of an alarm blared through Sakura Haruno's apartment, it travelled all the way into the living room where she lied awake on her beige couch - her eyes were wide open as she stared blankly into a TV screen where a woman with overdone long red curls and diamond rings on every finger chirpily advertised weapons.

"…NEW ladies kunai AND get three FREE personalised shuriken made from the strongest of steels! Pick from colours of pink and purple! Men, this is the PERFECT gift for that special someo-!" The television screen turned black and the sound was cut off as Sakura dropped the TV plug on the soft carpet.

Sakura walked to her bedroom and reached past her perfectly made bed to switch off the alarms siren. Out of all the rooms in her well-furnished home, this was her favourite. It was decorated with the help of one of her blonde best friends Ino Yamanaka – who insisted on nothing but the best for the room, arguing it was "The one place where you spend most of your time in, you might as well make it look great. And who knows Forehead, maybe you'll get lucky and a boy will stumble in your bedroom. Wouldn't want it to look like a pig sty, I hope." Sakura snorted and said "Says you, Ino-Pig. I don't see your room looking any better" To which the blonde retorted with a light swearing match. But Sakura still agreed with her, this was her sanctuary.

It was furnished with a king sized canopy bed, her wardrobe was lavished with dresses she had never worn and shoes she will never bear to walk on, as well as multiple kunoichi uniforms. The floor was covered in a plush cream carpet, which reminded Sakura of walking on fresh spring grass.

She picked out her kunoichi uniform by the hanger and dropped it carelessly on her bed.

Sakura stood in her shower and didn't really care that the water was nearly cold enough to make the nerves in her face numb. She stood feeling nothing except the ebbing edge of exhaustion pulling her into a sleepy daze. She saw a brilliant blue sky, clear of any clouds. Bright yellow and orange frosted the green meadow in a blanket of tulips.

She snapped out of it and stepped out of the numb walls of her shower and then started to lazily dry herself with a towel and spotted her ghostly reflection in the shower door. She stared blankly at herself as she dried her hair.

Sakura Haruno had stopped caring.

Sakura Haruno didn't really care that she has started to look sickly pale, she didn't really care that her skin has become increasingly tighter around her bones either, she especially didn't really care that she hadn't cut her pink locks for months - it was nearly past her shoulder blades now. Her hair dresser hadn't received her monthly visit for over six months! Sakura would turn up every 1st of the month, at exactly the same time and would demand exactly the same "style" of haircut every single time.

Then as usual, Harumi - the hairdresser- would ask Sakura all kinds of questions which she would answer freely. They talked about anything and everything. Mainly about Sakura's certain dream of finding a man with dark hair, strong features and chiseled body with a jaded attitude enough to anger a God. But she never mentioned a name, since his disappearance, more and more people have started to despise him. Labelling him as the "traitor of the leaf", "Snake spy" and even worse remarks like "just like his brother", after their failed mission to bring him back neither Sakura nor Naruto have mentioned their missing team member since.

Not until Kiba Inuzuka decided to get all the teams together one evening for a night out. It took two days of convincing, but Sakura succumbed when Naruto pushed his big blue eyes in her angry face and managed the best puppy look she'd ever thought was possible. She turned up to the restaurant straight from her exhausting training with the Hokage, wearing her uniform while Hinata, Ino and TenTen all wore beautiful dresses that took her breath away and the boys cleaned up a bit too. Naruto wore something not orange, which made everyone question reality and he even attempted to slick his hair back, which Sakura thought made him look older, more mature somehow.

The girls flaunted their dresses, complimented each other for what seemed like hours.

Sakura had heard Sasuke's voice in her head telling her she's hideous that whole night.

As if reading her mind Naruto whispered in her ear "You look nice" while the rest were busy eating Sukiyaki and Udon noodles. "How was Granny today? I heard she's working you harder than usual" Sakura glanced at him as she poked her food around the plate with a chopstick. It was true, the Legendary Sannin seemed to be increasingly more adamant about training Sakura until the point of complete exhaustion each day. Sakura reached new lows daily but she now knew her body's limits and learnt new techniques daily. "How many times have I told you not to call her that, she's the Hokage, Naruto!" she said without much venom.

"Not enough apparently" the blond's lips twisted into a familiar crooked grin that made Sakura warm in the face and hide behind her mass of pink curls. Sasukes monotone voice had quieted down in her head, and Sakura was suddenly hit with a rush of comfort and relief knowing she had Naruto beside her.

He'd seen her at her worse after the return from their empty handed mission to bring the Uchiha back to Konoha. Sakura had refused to eat, speak and leave her apartment for weeks, Ino had come over and nearly sobbed at the sight of her best friend passed out in her kitchen with broken plates surrounding her. In the end it was Naruto, Ichiraku ramen and a bottle of sake that had snapped her out of her spiral of hopelessness, he had stayed with her for three days- he whispered in her ear as she sobbed, he bought her new food, cleared up her broken plates and shattered glass. He made her laugh and her sadness pass.

_"I didn't know you can cook" Sakura wondered in confusion as she sat down on one of the chairs in her kitchen, where Naruto was frying up something delicious in a black t-shirt and sweatpants. She noticed the swell of his biceps as he tossed the pan, he smiled. "Pervy-Sage's a hopeless cook, that man cant fry an egg without burning a place down. Eventually it got to the point where no place would even take us in so we ate nothing but ramen every night, I mean it was delicious and extremely cheap- but when you're training everyday for hours on end, it doesn't really serve as good enough fuel. So I started to cook for us."_

_"Who are you and what have you done to Naruto Uzumaki" she said wide eyed. Naruto chuckled and served up chocolate chip pancakes with honey._

After that he had slowly began to avoid looking in her eyes but looked at her body longer like he was trying to commit her to memory, when he did that she hid her burning face behind her hair and looked at her shoes a lot.

When everyone had finished their drinks, Sakura made a trip to the bathroom, as she passed the bar she caught an earful of the barmen whispering heatedly about Naruto, she couldn't see them behind the pillar she was standing but she had heard them clearly.

"He's the one! Look at him, there was always the blonde jinchuuriki, then the pink haired slut – I think she left – and then that traitor Uchiha" one said to the other.

"If this was my bar I wouldn't serve either of them, they might as well be enemies of Konoha for all I care. What good have they done_, really?"_

"Jinchuuriki has always been causing trouble, since the day he's been born there has been nothing but more bloodshed for Konoha. Killed his own parents too I heard." Sakura's fists were brimming with chakra despite her previous exhaustion. She was itching to pound in their faces; she felt a thrill of emotions and decided this was the best she had felt in a long time.

"And the Uchiha, apparently they found him, were within 10ft of him and let him go."

"They should've just killed the boy. Worse than his traitor brother and –"

She emerged from the shadows and their faces she would remember forever in a frozen moment of terror. The first hit sent an earthquake across Konoha for 10 miles. In a fit of rage she broke the restaurant to pieces as Naruto in his sage mode and the others tried to calm her wailing, she hadn't even realized she was crying. Needless to say, the gang weren't invited to come back to that place again. But Sakura_ did_ invite Naruto back to her place, where the air suddenly got tighter around them while they watched midnight TV on her couch for what felt like hours. Then something silent carried them towards her bed, they exchanged a few desperate kisses and held onto each other with their clothes on, they confessed to eachother things she would have never known about him and things she had never otherwise said outloud, but mainly they talked about Sasuke Uchiha.

Then a familiar alarm woke them up.

A few days later he was off without a warning and she hadn't seen him since. To say she missed the obnoxious blonde would be an understatement.

Sakura glanced at the clock and saw that read it was nearly 6:20am, she quickly put on her clothing but it took her more energy to scoop her hair up into a ponytail. She decided to skip breakfast, again and by the time she made it to her Shishous office she was out of breath and a pair hazel eyes looked worriedly towards the pink haired girl.

"Haruno, you're late. Again!" Tsunade stood up_. _Sakura looked at her mentor hopelessly.

"I'm sorry, Tsunande-Shishou! It won't happen again" She said bowing, which took precious effort.

Tsunade sighed, and sat back down with her hand on the bridge of her nose. "How do you expect to become a respected medic when your punctuality is so poor? Sakura, these past few months you've been ruining your brilliant reputation you've worked so hard for before! What is going on with you?" Her mentor and Hokage inquired worriedly. When she realized her mentee wasn't going to answer, she sighed again and took a gulp of sake in resignation. "Fine. Today you'll be doing your usual traini-"

She was cut off by Shizune stumbling in through the door with a look of horror on her tear streaked face.

"There's been an attack on the Anbu units, it's terrible we don't have enough medics for this kind of-"

Sakura's blonde mentor started to shout and walked quickly towards the entrance.

"I – I don't think even you can heal them all" Shizune said worriedly with tears in her eyes.

"Well we can try" The Hokage hadwhispered.

* * *

Shizune was right, Sakura thought. This was terrible. No this was ten, hundred times worse. The smell of burnt flesh and blood reached Sakura's nostrils, but that wasn't what was making her feel vertigo of nausea coming on, no. It was the screaming. There were so many ear-splitting screams, not just ordinary screams she would hear herself give off when someone had hurt her in a spar, but agony stricken tortured screams of those in complete misery. She wanted to throw up, she was glad she skipped breakfast that morning. The worse thing was, she didn't know where they were coming from, _who_ they were coming from. Rows and rows of people marked the floors with their blood; some weren't even from Konoha and wore the Suna headbands. She estimated that half of them were dying and more would be if she didn't do something.

Tsunade was wiping blood of her sweaty face as medics rushed around her, healing melted bones proved to be harder than she thought. It seemed that they were all victims of a huge acid attack, no one had anticipated it, and no one could have. It wasn't like detecting jutsus or chakra – _this was acid_ – something so ordinary people used it in their cleaning products. It was a carefully planned attack, one which left the people who caught the brunt of it all into nothing but a pile of blood and bits of bone.

Someone was brought in with a melted heart, another with their whole leg nothing but a bone with hanging flesh. It was carnage. It was a cowardly attack, and it made the Hokage furious, left her shaking and breathing harder with each passing minute. For every one she healed, three died. It was hopeless.

It was now past noon, and Sakura was in a toilet cubicle dry heaving with thick tears streaking across her face. She couldn't stop thinking about it, couldn't stop inhaling nothing but the smell of corroding flesh. She sat on the toilet seat with her head in her hands, her hair barely held together by her hair band as tried to focus on the situation rather than how weak she felt.

The casualty count so far totalled up to 92 dead. 71 Konoha Anbu and the rest Sunagakure's own who's officials and help were on their way, Shizune had informed everyone and even helped some medics heal themselves as some patients lashed out violently, thinking the medics were causing their torment. Some were driven to madness by the pain and attempted to kill themselves.

Sakura kept thinking about one patient in particular, he looked a few years older than her and he was suffering from huge blood loss but Sakura was doing her best for him. He started smiling when he noticed her pink hair.

"What's your name, cherry blossom?" he said casually, like he didn't have acid corroding through his sternum and in through his lung. Sakura didn't answer; she was too focused on not letting her 13th patient die that day. "Do you want to go for a drink sometime?" he said, trying to sound as if it wasn't killing him to speak. He was reaching up to touch her face and suddenly Sakura could feel his chakra fading as blood poured from his mouth. She then reached for his approaching hand and helped him touch her face and she tried to smile as best as she could through tears "My name's Sakura, what is your name?" but he was already gone with a glassy look in his eyes. At this point Sakura wished she was like Sai and couldn't feel the full burn of emotions.

More tears cascaded down her cheeks and landed in-between her blood stained shoes. It was then that her blond best friend burst through the stall with a look on his face that Sakura couldn't help but shiver.

"Sakura" he whispered and scooped her in a warm hug. She was too surprised to move for a moment, before she returned the embrace just with as much emotion.

"You really shouldn't burst into the girls toilets like that…" she whispered timidly after a moment. "People will start talking." He only hugged her tighter and more tears began to escape from her bloodshot eyes. "I've missed you, Naruto" he didn't say anything, he wasn't even moving, he was just holding onto her like he would break if he moved a single muscle. "Naruto?" she paused, sensing there was something terribly wrong.

"It was all my fault." He repeated over and over and over again under his breath into her neck and squeezed her shrinking waist tighter. Sakura felt his arms shake around her as they both collapsed on the bathroom floor.


End file.
